Why to keep your contact form as simple as possible

So today i needed to fill up a registration form for a community website as i wanted to join a interessting conversation on one of the forums. But it wasn't easy and it didn't went very quick.

As we all do i went strait ahead to registration button and enter my data, but they wanted to know everything.. The enter form was huge! and full of field that where obligatorily which contained personal info, like phonenumber and adres. But for what i was going to do, it was ubsolutly uneccesery to share all this information with them.

• Was i going to buy something from them (the didn't even got a shop)? NO!
• Did they going to call me or sent me promotion material, so i would join there website? NO!
• Are the making the change bigger that i am leaving during the registration halfway? YES!
• Wasn't it for forum access easier to start with asking the necessary information like user name, password and email? YES!
• Wouldn't the registration succes rate be higher if they do this? Absolutely!

Now a days you have to register almost on every average, to big website one the web. This is to gain access as a user and as a webmaster to keep control over the users that behave badly on there forums.

So filling out webforms to get information is a good thing as a website owner, but can also be a bad thing and harm your website completely when it comes to getting information or letting it grow.

But this was just a example, so now the reason why i'm writing this post:

Keep your contact form as simple as possible as this will earn you new clients and they bring in the money to buy food in the end.

If a "possible client" wants to asked for a Quote or needs a answer on one of his doubts, and confirm his trust.. before starting to work with you?
Your contact form is the last stop in the way.. as it is also the easiest way to reach you without spending money on a phone bill or saving time by driving to you office.

So this step has to be as Simple, Small and Easy as Possible. Because if your website convinced your visitor to contact you, you shouldn't bully him/her with your contact form that's huge and full of the CIA questions.

They have to flow and be easily reachably!

And only asked for the information so you can reply on the question or Quote request that has been made.

So let's see what do we need for our average flowing and successful contact form.

And as final input field you need to add a message area so that the visitor can use this as he likes to asked you what he needs to know. To make this form usably and friendly, make sure that it isn't to small, make it big enough so a average size text can fit. And as extra it is smart to add a scalability functionality, so the user can change the size to his/ her comfort level.

There is no need for a phone number field, as will the visitor enter this in the message area if he/she want you to call back instead of replying by email. The important part here, is that you leave a step the most people don't even want to share right away with you but option is open for those who want.

Test your own forms for usability and succes rate if you aren't sure the preform optimal. I have added a online tool called Usefly below, that can help you start and of course Google Analytics is never a bad idea!

Userfly: http://userfly.com/

Success to you all with taking this step handled on you website and it's way to success and glory. I appreciate feedback and your point of view on this topic. If you liked this post, please share it with the rest of the world. Make sure to follow me on twitter or rssfeed for more posts in the future.